the great war, spencer reid [ 2 ]

031. keeper

Bedelia paces the small area between hers and her husband's desk while he's on the phone.

"Yeah, I know. It's great news. Thank you. Bye." Spencer hangs his phone up. "Yes!" He drums his hands on his desk before spinning around in his chair.

"She got in?" Bedelia asks.

"She got in!" Spencer grins, shooting to his feet, tackling her into a hug. She stumbles back, yet somehow manages to stay on her feet.

"Ah! This is great, Spence!" Bedelia grins, grabbing his face and kissing him.

"Am I interrupting a private moment?" Rossi asks, walking over causing the couple to pull away a bit.

"That was the director of the assisted care home where my mother lives." Spencer says, keeping his arms wrapped around his wife's waist, the woman still able to feel the excitement radiating off of him.

"And?" Rossi asks.

"I kept quiet because I didn't want to jinx it, but there's a groundbreaking clinical study on Alzheimer's at John Hopkins next month, and I just found out that my mom's gonna be one of the participants. She got in."

"That's great news, Spencer." Rossi smiles.

"It's huge. The program's called metabolic enhancement for neuro-degeneration, and results from earlier tests are hopeful, not just to slow the disease but to actually reverse it." Spencer says. "Yeah!" He exclamation turns into a loud laugh causing Bedelia to lean away from him a bit. "Sorry." He whispers, kissing her on the forehead.

"Okay, it's customary that the lottery winner shares the mega payout with the rest of the office." Penelope says, walking up.

"Well, Reid's news is even better than that." Rossi says.

"Oh. I can't wait to hear, but right now we got a case." Penelope says, heading to the round table room and Rossi follows.

"This is great, baby." Bedelia smiles.

"Yeah." Spencer lets out a deep breath, the smile still tugging at his lips.

"We'll jump for joy later." Bedelia promises, pecking him on the lips. "C'mon." She grabs his wrist, leading him to the round table room.

"Just spoke to Hotch. He's still on TDY but available for consulting if we need him." Rossi says.

"Okay, so for those of us who kvetch about our A.M. commute, this will put it in perspective." Penelope says. "This A.M., a Virginia state trooper discovered a bag of dismembered body parts. They were with a homeless man's belongings. That homeless man then fled into the mountains."

"The Appalachian Trail." Emily says.

"Am I, uh, missing something?" Luke asks, seeing the others' expressions.

"We had a case in the same general area 6 years ago. The unsub was never caught." Spencer informs.

"That guy was a pedophile. Do the body parts in Virginia belong to a child?" Rossi asks.

"They do not." Penelope states.

"Well, if there's a silver lining in this, that would qualify." JJ says.

"The trail does have some history. In the early 1980s, Randall Lee Smith killed two hikers there." Spencer says. "He served 15 years, got released, then went back to the exact same spot and tried to kill two more people."

"Maybe there's something in the water." Rossi comments.

"Saving body parts is like collecting souvenirs, right?" Luke asks.